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Sunday, March 31, 2013

It started as a fat quarter pack and was cut using the GO!. I quilted an all over meander (it seems to be a much maligned quilting pattern, but sometimes it is the perfect design). I had pieced the quilt top last summer, and it is nice to have it finished.

This is my Art Quilt of the Month for March -

I used some of my first home spun wool, and couched it down to a piece of rust dyed fabric. I quilted feathers on it since I have been working on a FMQ feathers tutorial this month. The little quilt is 6"x8".

I have plans to make a whole cloth quilt, and before I order some thread, I wanted to compare some different weights of threads that I had to choose from.

I free motion quilted with 100Wt (InvisaFil), 60Wt (The Bottom Line) and 50Wt (Aurifil), using wool batting and plain cotton, like the quilt I am planning. Normally I like the look of 100Wt thread, but because the quilt will be a bed quilt, I am planning on using 60Wt thread. I was surprised that they all looked fine, and that the back tracking wasn't too visible.

I had to include a picture from our little town, we are still waiting for the snow to melt here.

Friday, March 15, 2013

The samples get better every time. It took awhile to get coordinated to treadle, draft the fibres and feed the yarn on to the bobbin! Now that I have the hang of it I am trying to make finer, more even yarn. I haven't made enough to make anything with, only samples so far.

Fractal spinning involves dividing a hand painted fibre in to halves, spinning one half as is and dividing the other half in to narrower sections and spinning it. This results in one bobbin with long lengths of the colours (the bobbin on the right) and the other bobbin with short bursts of the colours (the bobbin on the left).

Then they are plied together (it is about 1oz of wool, and about worsted weight - hard to tell because of the thick and thin sections).

This is the sample I knitted up. You can see how the stripes change over the piece.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

March is National Craft Month - maybe it is only in the US, but I am going with it! I thought I would share some of my addictions crafting history.

I was lucky enough to grow up in a house where people did things and made things. My Mother is an incredibly talented seamstress, she sewed all the time (she still does), she made most of our clothes growing up, plus she did crochet, knitting, needlepoint, weaving, macrame..., my Father fixed things (still does) and now also does the most amazing cross stitch, and needlepoint, this winter he tried rug hooking - for the first and only time he tells me, my oldest brother made beaded jewelry when we were young, my sister sews, she makes beautiful quilts....... How could anyone growing up in a house like that not be inspired to create!

My philosophy has always been "If someone else can do it, I can at least try".

I started young, making things for my dolls with scraps of fabric.

When I was in school in England (my Father was in the Air Force and we moved a lot), I was taught to crochet (the large granny square) by a school friend. I was then given a ball of red yarn and I crocheted my Barbie every article of clothing imaginable with that red yarn. We were also taught embroidery at school.

It is so much fun learning something new! There is a whole new language - words like 'niddy noddy', 'lazy kate', and 'mother-of-all' are used in spinning, plus the challenge and reward of improving is so wonderful.

I bought the spinning wheel from Ottawa Fibre on Ebay, Heather, the owner, is terrific! She has fabulous ratings on Ebay and Etsy, and I know why - when Ebay made a mistake, Heather very kindly sent me a generous bundle of fibre to spin. Thanks Heather! I'll have pictures soon.

I have added a linky if you would like to share how you are celebrating National Craft Month, or if you want to share your crafting history (remember to link the specific post, not just your blog).

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

It is beautiful, and so well made. It is a queen size quilt. The batting is Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 cotton/polyester, which is really nice to quilt on a DSM. I started by quilting in the ditch, with a walking foot, on both sides of the small border.

She let me quilt it however I wanted to! So I chose hooked feathers for the border, I find them to be more "casual" feathers than traditional feathers, and perfect for large borders (this was about an 8" border).

Plus allover swirls and dragonflies for the body of the quilt.

The dragonflies were inspired by this fabric. Thanks for letting me quilt it J!

I also spent a few hours last week shovelling, hopefully that will be it for this winter.

Monday, March 4, 2013

Last week I dyed some more thread - this one started out as white #10 Opera crochet cotton.

Here's How -

I dye thread by tying it into a skein, and soaking it in a solution of water with soda ash and salt (about 2L or 1/2 gallon water with 1/2 cup each soda ash and salt), for about one hour. I then place the wet skein on an old plastic lid (something flat with sides), it is quite damp, but not so much that the liquid is going everywhere (other wise the colours will all get mixed, you can always add more solution if the colours aren't mixing). I use the dye powder straight from container and sprinkle it on the thread, just a bit, and then "mush" it around with my fingers to mix the colours (safety first - I wear a dust mask and gloves). These are proMX dyes for cotton.
I loosely cover the thread with plastic wrap and leave the lid in a warm spot for 24 hours (I use a heated seed starting mat), I try to make sure that all the plastic wrap is within the lid so that the dye doesn't wick out (this picture was taken before that step). After 24 hours I just rinse and wash it following the dye instructions. When the skein is clean, but damp, find the centre and "snap" the skein around your two hands, to get the skein to go back into shape and straighten all the threads. Hang to dry.

The inspiration for this colour way was a picture from a Telus calendar.

I dyed the thread because I wanted to try some free form crochet - a friend has a great tutorial on her new blog. It was lots of fun to make! I followed the instructions for the first few swirls and then just started trying out different stitch combinations and increases - it was interesting to see how it grew.

It's just tiny.

Thanks for the tutorial Susan!

This weekend I made this month's Ostrich BOM blocks. "Triangles" was the keyword this time - so I chose a star block and a triangle filler piece (cut using a Tri-Recs ruler).

I have also been doing some free motion quilting - I am working on a little project.

Last month I won a $100 gift certificate from Fat Quarter Shop, through the SewCalGal 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge. I ordered some French General fabric to go with some I have, and also a large piece of 108" wide, plain Moda cotton, to make a whole cloth quilt. Thanks SewCalGal and Fat Quarter Shop!

Carrying on the Tradition

The old quilts on the right side of my blog header photo are ones made by a couple of great-grandmothers, a grandmother and an aunt, plus some of their photos and some of their quilting supplies. The quilt in the background and the ones on the left are mine.